I have no desire to beat dead fossil bones into dust; paleontology has a critical role in understanding pterosaurs. Acknowledging the countless contributions of paleontologists (especially experts on pterosaurs) who have taught us much about those flying creatures of the past, however, I still lift up the modern eyewitness, pointing to the human experience of encountering a modern pterosaur. But does that make me a pterosaur expert?
As of October 4, 2012, I have never seen anything clearly resembling a living pterosaur, not even a clear and convincing photograph or video that shows details in the form or features of a living pterosaur (and is clearly not a misidentification or hoax). So I, Jonathan Whitcomb, am not an expert on pterosaurs in the sense that I have examined any of those living creatures directly.
Neither do I have any college degree in paleontology, so I am not an expert on pterosaur fossils, at least not in a professional sense. Some undisciplined skeptics have portrayed me and my associates as if we were simply ignorant of pterosaur fossils, knowing nothing about them. That is overly simplistic and misleading: As far as I am aware, none of the leading American living-pterosaur cryptozoologists (with the possible exception of Professor Peter Beach) has any college degree in paleontology, but most of us have read books or other literature written by experts on pterosaur fossils. That may be more than can be said of some skeptics who ridicule our work.
Some of my associates (cryptozoologists who specialize in these marvelous flying creatures) have seen at least one modern pterosaur. But how do the rest of us qualify to be any kind of expert, we who have encountered only eyewitnesses of pterosaurs? It’s in the testimonies. We learn the most from the most credible eyewitnesses who give us detailed descriptions of the flying creatures.
Pterosaur Existence Expert
Here I am an expert: the existence of modern pterosaurs. After nine years, and over 6,000 hours, I have adequate exposure to this concept to write and speak as an expert. A significant portion of eyewitness reports are both highly unlikely to be misidentifications and also highly unlikely to be related to any hoax. The factors which determine credibility are not personal wishful thinking but keeping records of the exact words used by eyewitnesses, asking questions, and analyzing the results. With more experience than any other active cryptozoologist, I may be the world’s leading expert on the existence of modern pterosaurs.
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Two large long-tailed flying creatures, apparent pterosaurs, caught the Marine’s attention. He later reported that they were “flying together at low altitude, perhaps 100 feet, very close in range from where I was standing, so that I had a perfectly clear view of them.”
A double misspelling of my first name (“Johnathon”) does not necessarily mean that “ape man” has been careless in his reading of my writings on the subject of apparent living pterosaurs (AKA “pterodactyls”), but other evidences suggest he has been careless indeed.
It was just a few commentators on a cryptozoology.com forum thread who initiated the attack. But it was a rather vicious attack, with one of the assailants using the name “ape man.”